Omnibus E-12 provisions would provide grant money to NAZ and the Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood

Maps showing the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) and the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood (SPPN).
Sources: Compiled images from NAZ and Wilder

Two provisions in the Senate omnibus E-12 finance bill (S.F. 767) would appropriate $600,000 each to both the Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood (SPPN) and the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) for FY 2015 in order to reduce multigenerational poverty and the educational achievement gap. The funding would be used to increase enrollment of families within each zone and would not continue to FY 2016.

The impact on child welfare

Both SPPN and NAZ act as a prevention measure for children who are at-risk of entering the child welfare system. The Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) analyzed national data on child maltreatment, which included the prevalence of neglect in families of various socioeconomic status. The NIS-4 combined 3 indicators to measure socioeconomic status: household income, household participation in any poverty program, and parents’ education. Children who were from low socioeconomic status households were more than 5 times as likely to experience maltreatment compared to their counterparts. When this data is broken down based on maltreatment type,  this population is more than 3 times as likely to be abused and nearly 7 times as likely to be neglected.

When considering the data from the NIS-4, it appears that tasking NAZ and SPPN with reducing multigenerational poverty and the educational achievement gap would also help to reduce the incidence of maltreatment.

Additional information regarding each initiative

Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood is a collaborative project that is working to provide academic and social support for children living in a 250-square block in the middle of Saint Paul’s Frogtown and Summit Avenue neighborhoods. The organization is helping to negate the achievement gap in the community by developing a plethora of solutions focused on placing value on each child and validating their worth. SPPN provides wrap around services so that each child who lives within the community is able to develop to the best of their potential.

The Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) is a collaborative initiative to support children who are living within the geographic area known as the “zone” in North Minneapolis. NAZ’s mission is to end multigenerational poverty within the Northside of Minneapolis and they plan to use education as the means to accomplish this goal. NAZ believe in the ability of all the children that live within the community and is working to prepare all children to graduate from high school and be ready to attend college.